Fuel cells are a growing business opportunity as electric power sources for battlefield troops, warehouse lift trucks, manufacturing, electric cars and unmanned aircraft, among other uses, industry executives said Wednesday.
That's good for Ohio, where businesses that supply fuel cell producers, college programs that training fuel cell industry workers and manufacturers interested in those power sources are already in place, business and trade executives said at a forum organized by the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition and Kettering-based Edison Materials Technology Center, a state-assisted organization that supports startup technology companies.
Ohio's Third Frontier program has provided millions of dollars in grants to encourage the industry's development. Fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with heat and water as the byproducts.
Ohio officials expect job growth to vary by industry, depending on the appeal of fuel cells for that business, said Michael McKay, an Ohio Department of Development official who oversees advanced energy programs.
McKay was unable to provide specific estimates of expected job growth in the fuel cell industry. Locally, Sinclair Community College offers training to develop fuel cell industry technicians.
Participants in the meeting at the Dayton Engineers Club heard these developments:
-- Crown Equipment Corp. of New Bremen last week built the 500th forklift truck it designed to be powered by a fuel cell. That is in addition to other lift trucks Crown has retrofitted in recent years for use with fuel cells, which can help companies reduce operating costs.
-- DJW Technologies LLC of suburban Columbus is working with the Navy to support that service's development of the Ion Tiger, an unmanned aerial vehicle powered by a fuel cell.
-- American Trim, a parts manufacturing company based in Lima, is working with General Motors Corp. to produce plates for fuel cells intended to power GM-built electric cars.
-- The Air Force Research Laboratory, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, is working on development of fuel cells that U.S. forces in the battlefield can use to power equipment, including unmanned aircraft small enough to be hand-launched so that the craft's sensors can do video surveillance and intelligence-gathering.
California-based UltraCell Corp. opened a fuel cell manufacturing plant in Dayton in 2007, but abruptly closed it in August 2010 when the market fell short of the company's expectations.
